Seminar:

December 5, 2014

Ramesh Giri

Cross-coupling reactions are widespread for the construction of carbon-carbon (C‒C) bonds in organic molecules, critically important for manufacturing pharmaceuticals, materials, as well as commodity chemicals. These transformations are typically catalyzed by the complexes of the precious transition metal (TM) palladium, which is not commonly found in nature. As a result, cross-couplings remain highly costly and unsustainable not only for long-term scientific advancements but also in large-scale production of affordable drugs. The search is ongoing for a non-precious metal catalyst for cross-couplings, and the discovery of such would be a “Holy Grail” in this area of research. Towards this end, we are developing catalysts based on copper, an environmentally benign, inexpensive and earth-abundant TM, as an alternative to palladium in cross-coupling reactions. In this talk, the versatility of CuI-catalysts bound to P,N-based hybrid bidentate ligands for cross-couplings as well as the mechanistic details leading to a general catalytic cycle will be presented.